Another ring, check. Another title, check. A sold-out signature shoe, check.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Aces superstar A\u2019ja Wilson had a year most athletes never even come close to achieving.<\/p>\n
She again reached individual success and even lifted her team to the top of the WNBA ranks.<\/p>\n
Her stardom even reached off-the-court buzz thanks to her branding and endorsements.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s rewind and look back on 2025 \u2014 The Year of A\u2019ja Wilson.<\/p>\n
3-TIME WNBA CHAMPION<\/p>\n
At the end, the Wilson and the Aces are only remembered as champions.<\/p>\n
But midway through the season, they looked dead in the water.<\/p>\n
Through Game 22 of the WNBA\u2019s longest-ever 44-game regular season, Wilson and the Aces held an 11-11 record after the star recorded a 37-point, 10-rebound performance to lift the team to a four-point win over the rebuilding Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n
The Aces, who retooled before the 2025 season by shipping out Kelsey Plum and acquiring Jewell Loyd, were mediocre for most of the year until a late surge propelled them to a top-3 finish in the WNBA.<\/p>\n
Led by the former Gamecock, a 16-game winning streak turned a 14-14 record to a 30-16 finish \u2014 a spark that nearly kept the team without a loss for two months. The key midseason addition of NaLyssa Smith (via trade with the Indiana Fever) can\u2019t be forgotten either.<\/p>\n
Wilson was the leading scorer in 12 of the 16 games, averaging 26.1 points and 12 rebounds. The No. 2 overall seed in the postseason continued the push into a WNBA Finals berth \u2014 Wilson\u2019s fourth appearance in eight total seasons. Ultimately, Wilson and the Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury, 4-0, in the Finals.<\/p>\n
It was Wilson\u2019s third Finals victory and she was awarded her second Finals MVP in the process.<\/p>\n
Wilson, who will be 30 during the next WNBA season (assuming the league and player\u2019s association agree on a new CBA), now has the same amount of titles as Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker and teammate Jackie Young. These WNBA greats are the only women with more rings than Wilson: Rebekah Brunson (five), Chelsea Gray (four), Cynthia Cooper (four), Tina Thompson (four), Sheryl Swoopes (four), Maya Moore (four), Seimone Augustus (four) and Sue Bird (four).<\/p>\n
Cooper (four), Lisa Leslie (two), Taurasi (two), Sylvia Fowles (two) and Breanna Stewart (two) are the only other multi-time WNBA Finals MVP winners.<\/p>\n
MVP & DPOY<\/p>\n
Wilson stands alone as the only WNBA player to win Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.<\/p>\n
WNBA voters deservingly awarded Wilson both awards after she averaged 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals while missing just four regular-season games.<\/p>\n
Wilson received 51 first-place votes to beat out Minnesota\u2019s Napheesa Collier (18) and Phoenix\u2019s Alyssa Thomas (three).<\/p>\n
The race for Defensive Player of the Year was much tighter.<\/p>\n
Wilson and Lynx forward Alanna Smith both received 29 first-place votes, awarding them Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n
Smith anchored the Lynx defense for 42 games while averaging 9.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals.<\/p>\n
It was the first time ever the league handed out a Co-DPOY award in it\u2019s 29-year history.<\/p>\n
A\u2019ONE<\/p>\n
The Year of A\u2019ja Wilson was on full display inside WNBA arenas.<\/p>\n
Then, the dominance continued inside sneaker stores nationwide and online shops.<\/p>\n
Wilson\u2019s first signature shoe \u2014 Nike A\u2019One \u2014 sold out within the first few minutes of launch on the brand\u2019s website last May. The \u201cPink A\u2019ura\u201d colorway on Nike\u2019s site became available at 10 a.m. ET on May 6 and buyers were quickly greeted with a sold out banner about five minutes afterwards.<\/p>\n
While fans waited for more colorways to become available, pairs of the \u201cPink A\u2019ura\u201d surged above retail price on resell marketplaces.<\/p>\n
Since then, the \u201cPink A\u2019ura\u201d colorway restocked and became readily available for purchase. And at least a dozen different colorways are available for purchase in adult and grade school sizes on Nike\u2019s website at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
The signature sneaker, which retailed for $110 for adults and $90 for grade-school sizing, was first announced in May 2024. Wilson\u2019s signature line also included shirts, hoodies and leg sleeves that match the kind the superstar wears on-court.<\/p>\n
At the time, the four-time MVP joined the likes of Candace Parker (Adidas), Sabrina Ionescu (Nike), Breanna Stewart (Puma), Elena Delle Donne (Nike), Diana Taurasi (Nike), Cynthia Cooper (Nike), Sheryl Swoopes (Nike) and Dawn Staley (Nike) to have a signature shoe.<\/p>\n
Since then, Reebok released the Angel Reese 1, which was well-received by fans.<\/p>\n
Nike officially introduced Caitlin Clark as a signature athlete on Aug. 25 and release her logo T-shirt days after. The brand later released her apparel collection in October. There\u2019s no official release or announcement set for a Clark signature shoe.<\/p>\n
TIME\u2019S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR<\/p>\n
To end 2025, how do you further continue to reach GOAT status?<\/p>\n
By being awarded Time\u2019s 2025 Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n
Not a Women\u2019s Athlete of the Year award \u2014 Time\u2019s Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n
Wilson earned the honor, presumably beating out a would-be-deserving legend like Shohei Ohtani and tennis phenoms Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. She\u2019s just the second Black woman ever to win the award \u2014 joining seven-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles as icons for the cover of the historic magazine.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fitting honor for the only WNBA\/NBA player to ever win an MVP award, DPOY award, a WNBA title, Finals MVP award and a scoring title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another ring, check. Another title, check. A sold-out signature shoe, check. Las Vegas Aces superstar A\u2019ja Wilson had…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":473508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2341,22870,62,201933,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-473507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aja-wilson","9":"tag-aces","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-time-magazine","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115787728349190830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}